Snapchat can already recognize and morph faces with its Lenses feature, but this update marks "a notable expansion" of Snapchat's object recognition technology, The Information's Tom Dotan reports. The update is allegedly being tested in a special version of the Snapchat app for company employees.

A Snapchat spokesperson declined to comment on the report when reached by Business Insider.

In November, Snapchat started letting users overlay lenses onto their surroundings — like virtual clouds on the sky — with an update called World Lenses. While World Lenses can already detect when a camera moves up or down or side to side, the unreleased version would let Snapchat detect physical objects and changes in landscapes through a phone's rear camera.

The move further indicates Snap's desire to be a leader in augmented reality, the futuristic tech that could one day replace our phone screens by using special graphics overlaid onto the real world.